A cursive capital Y starts with a forward hook, makes a rounded cup up to the top line, then pulls a long slant stroke through the baseline into a loop below it and exits with an overcurve. A lowercase cursive y is an overcurve and a slant at midline height, an undercurve back to the midline, then a slant down past the baseline that loops back and closes at the baseline.
How to write Y in cursive, step by step
The steps follow a Zaner-Bloser-style school cursive. The top half of the y moves like the start of an n and the bottom half like a j, so the letter is really two familiar motions joined by one long downstroke.
Capital Y
Start a little below the top line. Curve forward and up to the top line.
Slant down to the baseline and round the bottom, as in a capital U.
Undercurve up to the top line on the right.
Slant straight down through the baseline to the descender line.
Loop back to the left and up, crossing the downstroke at the baseline.
Finish with an overcurve. The capital Y joins the next letter.
The long right-hand stroke has to stay straight from the top line to the bottom of the loop. If it bends, the cup and the loop no longer line up and the Y looks broken in the middle.
Lowercase y
Start at the baseline and overcurve up to the midline.
Slant down to the baseline.
Undercurve back up to the midline.
Slant down through the baseline to the descender line.
Loop back to the left and close the loop at the baseline.
Exit with an overcurve.
The loop should be about as long as the part above the baseline. Most beginners make it too short, which squashes the letter and pulls the exit stroke too low.
12 ways to write Y
Styles divide on the bottom of the Y. Copperplate, Spencerian and most modern scripts keep the looped descender and shade the long downstroke. Italic usually drops the loop and ends the tail with a short curve to the left. Gothic writes Y as two angular strokes meeting above a straight tail, sometimes with a dot or hairline over it in older hands. The flourished and signature versions stretch the loop far to the left so it can sit under the rest of a word.
The loop is the most decorative part of the letter, so it is where flourishing is easiest. Keep the top cup plain if you make the loop large, or the letter gets crowded.
Common mistakes with Y
the top cup closes into an oval, so the y reads as a g
the descender loop closes below or above the baseline instead of on it
the loop is too short, so the letter looks squashed and the exit starts too low
the long downstroke bends, so the cup and the loop don't line up on one slant
A loop that closes in the wrong place causes most reading problems with y. Close it at the baseline, on the downstroke, every time.
Joining Y to other letters
The lowercase y leaves with an overcurve from the baseline, the same exit as g and j. That overcurve heads up and to the right, so it flows into letters that start with a curve over the top, such as the a in "ya" and the o in "yo". "Ye", as in "yes" and "eye", is the hard one: the exit has to change direction to make the e's loop. "Ys" in "always" needs the overcurve to climb to the s's point. "Yi" appears in words such as "trying" and should join at the midline with no extra loop.
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Ye
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Yo
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Ya
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Ys
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Yi
Practice Y
The Y sheet has a row of descender loops on their own, then the capital Y, the lowercase y and the joins. Watch the loops closely: they should all close at the same height.
What is the difference between a cursive y and a cursive g?
They share the same looped tail, but the tops are different. A g starts with a closed oval, like an a, and drops the tail from the right side of it. A y starts with an open cup made from an overcurve and an undercurve. If your y looks like a g, the cup is closing at the top; leave it open, with a clear point where the second climb turns down.
Does the cursive capital Y connect to the next letter?
Yes. In Zaner-Bloser-style cursive the capital Y ends with the same overcurve as the lowercase y and joins directly, as in "You" and "Yellow". The top of the capital is the same shape as the start of a capital U, so if your U is even, your Y will be too.
Why is the cursive y hard to write?
It crosses three guidelines in one motion, and the downstroke must stay straight while the hand moves from the midline to the descender line. The loop also has to close against that stroke at exactly the baseline. A helpful drill is to write "uj" slowly, then remove the dot and the gap between them. The result is very close to a y.
Where did the letter Y come from?
Y comes from the Greek upsilon, the same ancestor as U, V and W. The Romans borrowed it a second time, much later, to spell Greek words, which is why it sits near the end of the alphabet. Its long tail in cursive is a writing habit; the original capital was just a cup on a stem.
